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Chapter 1027: Christmas Presents
🕑 Added 2024-02-26 09:18:45 +0000 UTCBefore Christmas arrived, the atmosphere within Number Twelve Grimmauld Place became livelier with each passing day.
After Voldemort escaped, there was no bad news and everything was moving in the positive direction.
Elaine had also become familiar with everyone. Putting aside her identity as a vampire and her tendency to bite Evan at every turn, she was very easy-going and easy to get along with.
Her mood was getting better, Caresius’s injuries gradually stabilized, and Dumbledore said that he was out of danger.
This took away Elaine's biggest worry, plus she was about to go to Hogwarts!
Imagine the feelings of those first-year students who had received their admission letter and were about to attend Hogwarts.
Elaine was feeling the same way now, perhaps even more excited.
She had only stayed in a Muggle school when she was in elementary school, and then returned to her family's castle, where her uncle taught her how to use magic. She rarely had contact with outsiders, and being able to enter a Wizarding school and study with everyone had always been her dream.
More importantly, in her family, there were many stories about her ancestor Salazar Slytherin.
One vivid part of these tales was Slytherin co-founding Hogwarts with the other three founders.
Elaine had long wanted to visit. As Slytherin's descendant, she had every reason to go to Hogwarts.
The only regret was that she wasn't entering through regular procedures but as an exchange student.
In order to facilitate care, she couldn’t go to Slytherin House, but to Gryffindor where Evan was.
Although everyone told her how bad Slytherin House was, Elaine had a unique affection for it.
From the perspective of pure bloodline, Elaine was the student most qualified to enter Slytherin.
In terms of inheritance relationship, Slytherin House belonged to their family.
She was probably also the most orthodox among the descendants of the Four Founders of Hogwarts, still retaining her own surname.
Evan wasn't worried that she would be bullied by other Slytherins because the longer he got to know her, the more he realized she was quite cunning. Cute and absent-minded were just appearances; apart from not having great ambitions, she met all the criteria for Slytherin House students. She truly lived up to being Salazar's descendant.
Now, Elaine spent her days around Evan, Hermione, or Ginny, asking them about anything related to Hogwarts.
Perhaps because of the last incident, she didn't dare to get close to Harry.
Ron didn't know what to say to her. Whenever he saw Elaine, he was nervous and speechless. This was his habitual reaction when he saw a beautiful girl.
As for Fred and George, they were still indulging in their prank research, which was a sense of humor that Elaine didn't quite understand.
Like Elaine, there was another person in a happy mood in this old house, and that was Sirius.
Moreover, Sirius's joy was infectious.
He had never spent Christmas with anyone since he came back from Azkaban.
Therefore, this Christmas had an extra special meaning.
This seemed to bring Sirius great satisfaction and happiness, and he was determined that everyone should enjoy themselves as much, if not more, than they would have done at Hogwarts.
He worked tirelessly to prepare for the holidays, cleaning and decorating the house with everyone's help.
Last summer, everyone cleaned under the guidance of Mrs. Weasley, but compared to Sirius's ongoing cleaning, that was nothing. This time, he threw away everything he found unsightly and replaced it with new items.
And the things he couldn't bear to see included almost all the items in this house.
Now, Kreacher was crying every day and sneaking things from the trash bags to his quarters, cursing Sirius as a shameful prodigal. He also came to Evan, Harry and Hermione, begging them to persuade Sirius not to tear down this place.
Hermione was willing to help him, she would not give up any opportunity to help the house-elves, and Kreacher's request was not unreasonable.
Finally, with Hermione and Kreacher working together to stop Sirius, Sirius restrained himself.
Even so, by the time they all went to bed on Christmas Eve the house was barely recognizable.
The tarnished chandeliers were no longer hung with cobwebs but with garlands of holly and gold and silver streamers; magical snow glittered in heaps over the threadbare carpets; a great Christmas tree, obtained by Mundungus and decorated with live fairies, blocked Sirius’s family tree from view; and even the stuffed elf heads on the hall wall wore Father Christmas hats and beards.
Evan awoke on Christmas morning to find a stack of presents at the foot of his bed, as did Harry and Ron.
Ron, who had always slept in, woke up early and was already halfway through opening his own pile.
“Good haul this year,” said Ron through a cloud of wrapping paper, after noticing that Evan had woken up. "Harry gave me a Broom Compass, it’s excellent, beats Hermione’s — she’s got me a homework planner —and yours, Evan, I’m opening it, thank you for … um, a quill?!"
“It can automatically correct errors," said Evan, stretching with a yawn. He also found Hermione's Christmas present. "Hermione thought both you and Harry needed one. There are too many errors in your homework vocabulary, so she decided for you on my behalf. You know, this kind of quill is not cheap."
“All right, thank her for me,” Ron sighed. "She's right. I do need one."
Next to him, Harry got up and found a present with Hermione’s handwriting on it.
She had given him a book that resembled a diary, except that it said things like “Do it today or later you’ll pay!” every time he opened a page.
Because they were taking O.W.Ls exams this year, Hermione thought they all needed such a planner to help them review.
Indeed, after the Christmas holidays, the time until the exams was very close.
The same was true for the present Evan received from Hermione. It was a little different, maybe a little special, chosen with extra care by Hermione.
At the same time, she also suggested that Evan should give Harry and Ron a self-correcting quill each.
Evan knew all this without expecting much. What he looked forward to was the time alone with Hermione in the evening.
Maybe the one present he could receive from Hermione this Christmas was Hermione herself.
After looking at the homework planner from Hermione, Evan began to open the Christmas present Elaine had got him.
Elaine had no money. Besides the dragon blood she consumed daily, Evan paid for her textbooks, clothes, and other necessities for studying at Hogwarts. Evan told her not to be modest and to choose expensive things, and she indeed didn't show any hesitation. She had no concept of money.
But it didn’t make sense to use Evan’s money to buy a Christmas present and then give it back to Evan.
Even though Elaine had no concept of money, she knew she couldn't do that. So, she said she wanted to prepare it herself.
Evan was skeptical; would she also give herself to him as a present?
Comments
Translating_Wizard
Hello there! Indeed, the benefits for different tiers are early access based, and this is the latest chapter released for the "Welcome to Hogwarts" tier. Worry not, however, as each month, 30 new chapters are added for all the tiers. Today, for example, every tier is receiving a new one. Currently, you are around 90 chapters ahead of the public release. By being part of the Patreon, you receive more monthly chapters, *and* you stay far ahead of the public release.
albro dumblebro
nooo, why are there no more chapters? is it because i habe the lowest tier or did the author stop releasing new chapters?
